3,926 km raced at an average speed of 37.488 km/hr, a record speed that would hold until 1983.

119 starters and 79 classified finishers

Gastone Nencini was able to take advantage of the bitter hatred between three-time Tour de France winner Louison Bobet and and 1956 Giro winner Charly Gaul. Gaul lost a lot of time in stage 18, putting a 1957 victory out of reach. Rather than let Bobet win, Gaul gutted himself to help Nencini beat Bobet in stage 19, making Nencini the 1957 Giro winner.

This excerpt is from "The Story of the Giro d'Italia", Volume 1. If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print or electronic. The Amazon link here will make either purchase easy.

Coppi broke his femur during a circuit race in Sassari, Sardinia in the beginning of March, destroying much of his season and of course, making a Giro start impossible.

Charly Gaul (if you want to impress your friends with your continental sophistication, pronounce his name “gowl”)announced his intention to win two consecutive Giri. Besides a high-quality field of capable Italians that included Defilippis, Nencini, Fornara and Melbourne Olympic Road Champion Ercole Baldini, there was Louison Bobet. Bobet, France’s first great postwar rider, had done what no other racer had yet accomplished: win three consecutive Tours de France in 1953, ’54, and ’55. Along the way Bobet also bagged a World Road Championship, Paris–Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Tour of Lombardy and Milan–San Remo. In short, Bobet was one of the greatest riders the sport had ever seen, having won the most important races in an era bubbling with talent. But his attempts to win the Giro hadn’t paid off (seventh in 1951, abandoned in 1953). In 1957, he led a French squad that included Géminiani, Antonin Rolland and his own brother Jean.

For our story it is important to understand that Gaul detested Bobet and Bobet returned the feeling. Bobet wanted to be considered a refined and elegant person, which often made him the brunt of the other riders’ jokes. But Gaul, with a blunt and difficult personality, hated Bobet and his upward social aspirations. This hatred, which simmered just shy of pathological until this 1957 Giro, will fuel the drama of several important races over the years but has to be considered the crucial factor in the 1957 Giro.

The first stage, going east to Verona, was first of all a sprinter’s slugfest between van Steenbergen and Poblet, with the Belgian getting the stage and the first lead. But it was also indicative of Bobet’s intelligent riding. Of the Classification contenders, only he and Ercole Baldini were in the front group. Gaul, Géminiani, Nencini and the rest let two precious minutes slip away.
The next day’s 30-kilometer timed hill climb up to Bosco Chiesanuova, due north of Verona, had Gaul written all over it and the Luxembourger performed as expected. He won it with Géminiani a full minute slower and Defilippis and Bobet about fifteen seconds still further back.

Surprising most observers, Bobet said he would defend his lead, even though this would surely be an exhausting ordeal. Bobet decided to try to keep the maglia rosa because he had so much confidence in his team.

The next notable change to the standings occurred when Defilippis and Nencini got into the winning break in stage four. Defilippis was now second to Bobet at 8 seconds with Nencini sixth at 52 seconds. Bobet and his French boys should have been paying attention and kept that break from gaining time. But perhaps Bobet was doing the best he could. By the end of stage five he was already getting ragged. Brother Jean said he was “at the end of his tether”.

Nino Defilippis in pink

While getting his post-race massage Bobet announced to the press that he would not contest the Tour de France that July. The 1957 Giro was turning into such a ferocious race Bobet knew he wouldn’t be able to recover in time to mount a credible attempt to win a record-setting fourth Tour. He upset the Tour organization and French team manager Marcel Bidot by not letting them know about his decision ahead of the public announcement. His domestiques were also unhappy, thinking about their potential loss of Tour income. It was a hasty move made during a moment of physical and mental distress which Bobet later regretted. This does underline, however, how difficult this Giro was turning out to be.

His announcement changed cycling history. Bidot, the man charged with selecting the French team for the Tour, could not invite both Jacques Anquetil and Louison Bobet to ride on the same team. That would yield a divided squad that could turn on itself. Bobet’s desire to relinquish his nearly assured place on the team left the door open for Anquetil, who it turned out, was not originally going to be on the team. That July Anquetil went on to win the first of his five Tour victories.

Stage eight was a mountainous 250-kilometer route to Naples, a perfect setting for a break of Vito Favero, Defilippis and Michele Gismondi, a rider who usually devoted himself to being Coppi’s gregario. The trio pulled into Naples 21 seconds ahead of the pack, just enough time to make Defilippis the new leader with Bobet second at 13 seconds.

Defilippis sported his Pink Jersey for several days, but with the arrival of the race in Tuscany, he had to defend his lead in a 59-kilometer time trial that went from Montecatini to Forte dei Marmi on the Ligurian coast. Ercole Baldini beat Cleto Maule by 8 seconds to take the stage win while Nencini was 75 seconds slower, and Bobet lost nearly two minutes. But the effect was to put Bobet back in the lead of a tight race. So far, because the Italians and French were hammering away at each other, Gaul had been able to sit in and ride without wasting any energy.
1. Louison Bobet
2. Ercole Baldini @ 2 seconds
3. Gastone Nencini @ 15 seconds
4. Nino Defilippis @ 27 seconds
5. Charly Gaul @ 55 seconds

Stage fifteen was to be the first day in the high Alps, but the day before, a break of nineteen riders was allowed to get loose. The best-placed of them was Antonin Rolland, one of Bobet’s most trusted domestiques, who had been almost five minutes behind Bobet. The break finished in St. Vincent 4 minutes 55 seconds ahead of the main pack. Rolland would get to wear the maglia rosa the next day over the Gran San Bernardo pass and into Sion, Switzerland.
Stage fifteen was indeed selective. Gaul was first over the San Bernardo but it was Bobet who led Nencini and Gaul across the finish line in Sion. Géminiani was a half-minute behind, and a chase group with Baldini and Fornara followed in five minutes later. The rest of the field, including Rolland, needed at least ten more minutes to finish the stage. Bobet was again in pink with Nencini second at 15 seconds and Gaul third, 38 seconds further back.

Ercole Baldini, Charly Gaul and Gastone Nencini

But the next day, as the Giro returned to Italy via two serious climbs, the Sempione (Simplon in French) and the hilltop finish at Campo dei Fiori, Gaul took a minute out of Nencini and two from Bobet. It was a cold, wet day and as the riders came closer to the Campo dei Fiori climb, Jean Bobet noticed that Gaul, who thrived in this sort of miserable weather, was looking “twitchy”, ready to make a move. And move he did, nearly sprinting up the steep hill. Charly Gaul, now in pink, seemed to be on his way to a second successive Giro win. The tifosi were so flagrant and obvious about the pushing they gave Nencini (and pulling on the saddles and jerseys of the French riders) on that climb that the judges had to adjust the times for Nencini and Bobet. Second-place Nencini was assigned a time of 56 seconds behind Gaul; Bobet was scored third, down 1 minute 17 seconds.

Stages eighteen and nineteen were in the Dolomites. Perhaps even better, stage eighteen went over Monte Bondone, where Gaul had crushed everyone a year earlier. Gaul himself could not have picked out more favorable ground to defend his lead and his 1956 Giro championship.

At the start of stage eighteen, going from Como to Trent, Charly Gaul still held a narrow lead. He was so confident at this point that he told the press that the race was sewn up. Giving the other champions’ tails a good twist, he said that on Monte Bondone he would decide how far behind he would leave the other riders.

The 242-kilometer stage was flattish with the hard ascent over the Bondone coming towards the end. After about a third of the day’s distance had been covered, Bobet decided he needed to answer the call of nature. The rest of the French riders joined him in seeking relief.

Nencini, also thinking this would be a good time to have a “natural break”, signaled to his Chlorodont teammates that they should also dismount. Gaul, who had passed the stopped riders, continued on for a couple more kilometers before he and Ernzer also climbed off their bikes to relieve themselves.
Bobet and Nencini finished their business and got back on the road, riding past the still busy Gaul. The reader, remembering that blunt and brusque Gaul detested Bobet, will not be surprised by what happened next. When Bobet rode by, in Géminiani’s words, “Gaul made an indecent gesture with his organ of virility.”

That did it. Normally race etiquette allows a racer to urinate safely without worrying about being attacked. But this insult after Gaul’s other public strutting was too much. Bobet, furious, yelled to Géminiani to drop the hammer. Nencini and his men (and others, including Baldini and Poblet) understood that this was a moment to be seized and jumped in to help the French (and themselves) distance themselves from Gaul. Knowing that the race had now been put back in play, they rode the next 90 kilometers at 45 kilometers per hour!
Gaul could not close the gap as the Italians and French roared over the Bondone and into Trent. Here’s where his contempt for his teammates and bad relations with the rest of the peloton cost him dearly. He was largely on his own and even though he was an effective time-trialist, this was a chase beyond any single man. At the end of the day Nencini was in pink, close to eight minutes ahead of Gaul with Bobet in second, a slim 19 seconds behind the Italian.

Stage nineteen would settle this close Giro with its three major climbs, the San Lugano, the Rolle and the Brocon. When Bobet had scorched the Bondone the day before, he had put Nencini on the ropes. With lots of climbing on the day’s menu, the three-time Tour winner felt he could take the needed time out of Nencini.

Bobet and Géminiani had executed tactical set pieces of surpassing effectiveness in past races. This day the French team warmed up thoroughly before the start. At the gun they took off. The French pace was so fast that by the time they crested the first mountain, the San Lugano, the lead group was down to six riders, including our protagonists. They stayed together until the descent of the Rolle where Nencini flatted. The others drove on. Almost all the others, that is. Waiting for Nencini was Gaul. If he couldn’t have the Pink Jersey, he was damn sure Bobet wasn’t going to have it either! And Gaul was from Luxembourg, he was not French. There were no national ties binding Gaul to a good French outcome.

In the Bobet group was Baldini, normally a wonderfully powerful ally in such a break. But he would not work to help Bobet gain time over Nencini, knowing that the Italian fans would crucify him if he helped the Frenchman drop an Italian in the maglia rosa.

Bobet and Géminiani raced up the final hill, the Brocon, with all the speed and power they could muster. “Gem”, unable to maintain the fiendish pace Bobet set finally had to let him go on alone.

When Bobet looked back down the hill, he saw a horrifying sight. Gaul, with Nencini on his wheel, was slowly closing the gap. Finally they were together with Gaul winning the stage and Nencini preserving his lead. With that, the Giro was effectively over.

Because he lost the Giro in a moment of angry indiscretion, Gaul earned the nickname Chéri Pipi, or colloquially, “Costly Pee”. Gaul’s original nickname was “The Angel of the Mountains”, given to him at the beginning of his pro career because of his youthful looks and easy climbing style, but he never liked the name. He thought of himself as a warrior and said he would have preferred a nickname more like Bahamontes’ “The Eagle of Toledo”.

Gaul took the entire episode badly and raged at Bobet, “I will get my revenge. I will kill you. Remember I was a butcher [Gaul’s profession before turning pro]. I know how to use a knife.”

That this was an extraordinarily difficult Giro can be seen by the race’s average speed: 37.49 kilometers per hour. This was three faster than 1956 and a speed that would not be exceeded for 26 years. Giro historian Sandro Picchi noted the irony that the man who accomplished this, Giuseppe Saronni, was born in 1957.

There was another battle going on in the 1957 Giro, one for stage wins. Poblet and van Steenbergen each won four, with the Belgian winning both the first stage and the final one ending in Milan. One has to give extra credit to Poblet for his excellent sixth-place performance in the General Classification during a brutal, highly competitive race. Van Steenbergen, who finished 33rd, would go on to win a second consecutive World Road Championship that fall.